The murder of a prominent Lebanese publisher marked a resumption of assassinations against outspoken members of the intelligentsia in a country where freedom of speech has eroded over the past decade.
Lokman Slim was found dead in his rental car on Thursday morning after he had gone missing in southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, the night before.
The powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah is an armed group with political representation in Parliament. A vocal critic of the group, Slim had received threats in December 2019, after its supporters accused him of promoting normalisation with Israel.
His assassination is reminiscent of that of other outspoken writers and activists over the years.
That includes the murder by Mossad of renowned Palestinian novelist Ghassan Kanafani in Beirut in 1972 as well as journalist and publisher Salim Al Lawzi who was abducted, tortured and killed at the height of the civil war, in 1980, after he criticised the Syrian troops in the country.
Lebanon’s history of targeted killing of intellectuals stretches as far back as the 1960s, with the murder of Kamel Mroueh.
The founder of the Al Hayat and The Daily Star newspapers was murdered in 1966 for his criticism of Pan-Arabist movements.
While one of Mroueh’s killers was caught and faced justice, he escaped prison at the beginning of the civil war. Politically-motivated assassinations have largely gone unpunished since then.
The killing of former prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005 triggered the most recent and brutal string of political assassinations in postwar Lebanon. It extended until 2013 with the killing of Mohamed Chatah, a minister and outspoken Hezbollah critic close to the late Hariri. Although an international court convicted one of Hariri’s killers last year, the Hezbollah operative remains at large, and no one was jailed for the murder.
At the time, Hariri’s killing spurred mass demonstrations for justice and the end of 29 years of Syrian occupation. Those who opposed the Hezbollah-allied Syrian regime were targeted, including Georges Hawi, former leader of the Lebanese Communist Party, as well as prominent writers and public figures.
French-Lebanese-Palestinian journalist Samir Kassir is perhaps one of the most well-known victims of this wave of attacks. A left-wing activist and journalist, he wrote books on Lebanese and Syrian history. He yearned for a secular, democratic Lebanon and opposed the Syrian regime. He was killed on June 2, 2005 in a car bombing. No one was charged for his killing. His name is now attached to an esteemed journalism prize and local media freedom watchdog Samir Kassir Eyes.
That same year, journalist and newly-elected parliamentarian Gebran Tueni was killed on the day he returned from self-exile in France. Tueni’s grandfather, also named Gebran, had founded Annahar in 1933. It is one of Lebanon’s most well-respected newspapers. Tueni directed it at the time.
On March 14, 2005, he told hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square to take an oath, in what has arguably become the most famous speech in recent Lebanese history: “In the name of God Almighty, we, Muslims and Christians, swear to remain united until the end of time, to defend our Great Lebanon.” He was killed in a car bomb nine months later. His killers remain at large.
That same year television presenter May Chidiac, a public figure who was also critical of Syria, survived an assassination attempt that maimed her severely. She lost her left arm and leg but continued to work in journalism.
Slim’s killing harks back to that era of assassinations.
In a statement he had published on December 13, 2019, more than a year before his murder, Slim said he places responsibility for anything that may happen to him on Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his ally Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri.
He signed off his note with an ominous warning: “God is my witness, I spoke out.”